


Strength in Her Silence

by hypersugarroxy



Series: APHRPW 2k14 [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gakuen, F/M, Fluff, choral club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 15:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3574769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypersugarroxy/pseuds/hypersugarroxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’d been around her singing so long, he’d forgotten how oddly beautiful her silence could be, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strength in Her Silence

**Author's Note:**

> originally from tumblr. fill for aphrpw 2014.

Eduard kept letting his concentration falter as he played the old upright piano in the club room for his partner. Keeping on schedule and in time was important, and he heard it in Iryna’s voice every time he started getting lazy, letting his ears focus not on the piano’s melody but on the quickly-translated lyrics coming out of her mouth.

It was just the two of them again, Raivis having been dragged on a different club’s activities and Toris needing to finish a project with Gilbert. Eduard would never admit it to the choral club, or anyone else for that matter, but he secretly relished these days without them. It wasn’t that he hated their classmates; it was simply that he enjoyed the excuse for sharing Iryna’s company with no one else.

The only thing that came close to this level of enjoyment in the chorus room was when there was only one other member, usually Raivis, since Toris is so busy, and it was the smaller boy’s turn to play while Eduard had the chance to sing with Iryna. He could easily get lost in her voice, pitched lower as his turned higher, strangely complementary to each other…or was that just his wishful thinking?

“Are you alright?” Iryna set her lyric sheet over Eduard’s hands to get his attention. He looked up at her slight frown, brow together with concern. Eduard looked back in confusion: had he done something? “You’re skipping again. Is this one difficult? We don’t have to do this song. Or we can wait until Toris comes back, I know he can play it.”

He’d let himself get lost again. He broke their eye contact and set the sheet music off to the side.

“You’ve been like this for a while. Are you ok, dear?”

She called everyone that, but he liked to pretend it was something unique, whether it was the way she said it or how she looked while she said it (which he couldn’t see, staring at the piano keys, avoiding looking right at her) or just the fact that she said it to him.

He heard her footsteps go around the piano’s bench and looked to his left as she sat down next to him.

“So distracted these days…you sure you won’t say what’s on your mind?” There is no correct way to ruin a song on the piano and then confess that you were distracted by the singer because of the ecstasy her voice gives you. He searched his head for some explanation and was cut short of opening his mouth (to stutter, but it would’ve at least looked like he was trying to answer her) by her arms around his shoulders.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I want you to know I’ll be a friend if you need it. Okay?”

“You have enough to worry about,” he told her. She rested her head on his shoulder.

“Then you’ll just have to be my friend, too.”

He’d like to have said he wasn’t thinking as he did it, but he had every wit clearly about him as he adjusted his neck to leave a kiss on her forehead. She tilted her head upward at that same moment, letting him leave it right between her eyes instead.

She gave a small laugh. He hadn’t heard it for sometime. Not a real laugh, or a small, no-reason laugh. He watched a light layer of color come over her face, and felt his own mimic the flush at being the one to make it appear. He placed an arm around her waist and pulled her a few centimeters closer to him.

She moved her head back again, trying to look him in the face. “What’s this about?”

He loosened his hold on her. “Should I stop?” he asked, wondering what move he did wrong. He should’ve known better than to try to act smooth.

“No…I’d just…it’s fine.” She rested her head again. He pressed middle C. It sounded weak.

“That key’s breaking now.”

“Maybe we can ask Roderich about it. I don’t know anything about pianos.”

“Maybe we should actually get music done while we have the club room,” Eduard said.

“Well, it was just that you kept being…was it about the key? Why you were distracted?”

He rested his head on hers. He’d say something someday. Maybe they’ll be able to afford their own lives in the future. And he’d love her by his side, and to be by hers.

Her balance of caring and steadfastness, the way she learned to love small things because that was often all she had, her willingness to be a rock even as she was turbulent…how was this person next to him real?

Not another word was said between them, Every few minutes or so Eduard would reach out & play E#. He wondered if she was even still awake as the light started coming in orange through the dusty windows. He stole a look at her face, her eyes closed as though catnapping, her breathing steady and slow. She looked so much older than the last time he remembered being this close to her, but in her sleep, next to him, she looked like she was somehow at peace. It had been a long time since he’ just sat down and spoken to her. He’d been around her singing so long, he’d forgotten how oddly beautiful her silence could be, too.

And in the choral room on a piano bench on a May afternoon, he realized just how hard he’d fallen for Iryna Chernenko.


End file.
